A

SEMINAR TOPIC

ON

NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DATA

ABDUL-WAHAB FATIMOH OMOBOLANLE

FPI/STA/18/001

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCE.

THE POLYTECNIC, ILE-OLUJI, ONDO STATE.

FEBUARY, 2021.

1
 A

SEMINAR TOPIC

ON

NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DATA

ABDUL-WAHAB FATIMOH OMOBOLANLE

FPI/STA/18/001

SUBMITTED TO :

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCES.

THE FEDERAL POLYTECNIC, ILE-OLUJI, ONDO STATE.

AS
PART OF REQIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF NATIONAL DIPLOMA (ND) IN
STAISTICS

2
 FEBUARY, 2021.
CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that this seminar work is carried out by ABDUL-WAHAB FATIMOH

OMOBOLANLE [ FPI/STA/18/001 ] and that it has been read and approved as meeting part

of requirements for the award of National Diploma [ND] in STATISTICS in the Department

of STATISTICS, FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC, ILE-OLUJI, ONDO STATE

MR. OLANEGAN O.O …………………………………..

Supervisor name Supervisor Signature

ABDUL-WAHAB FATIMOH …………………………………..

[FPI/STA/18/001] Student Signature
Student name

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INTRODUCTION

Diagram representation of some economic and social data

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 SOCIAL DATA ECONOMIC DATA

 Population Data  Agricultural Data

 Health Data  Financial data
 Housing Data  External Data
 Crime Data  National Accounting Data
 Labour Data

Economic Data
Economic data are data relating to production, distribution and consumption of goods and
services in other words, these are data relating to economic and business activities of a
country. Typical, examples of economic data are explained below;
1. Agricultural data
Agricultural statistics cover, all activities of people engaged in the agricultural sector. Data
on agriculture consists number of persons who are actually in agriculture and their
dependents, income per person in agriculture, output from agriculture income per farm by
different size of agriculture holding. Agricultural data also comprise production (in metric
tons) of beans in by state, area planted (in hectares) to yam, millet, maize, cotton, rice, etc
from the year 2000 to 2008. Another good example of agricultural data is data on
employment in crop farming by sex and category of workers.
2. Financial Data
The financial statistics cover all the sources and uses of funds. The source of funds relate to
the decrease in assets and/or increase in financial liabilities, while uses of funds relate to the
increase in assets and/or decrease in liabilities. Financial data also include data on foreign
exchange, interest rates end of month forward rates and daily exchange rates.
3. External Trade Data

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Data on external trade give information on total export and imports of goods and services
during a particular period of time and the trading partners. Thus data and total imports of
consumer goods, intermediate goods, equipment, and machinery into Nigeria from 2001 to
2008 is external trade data. Data on total export of primary and other manufactured goods by
Nigeria in the same period (2001-2008) is also external trade data.
4. National Accounting Data

National accounting data consist data on economic transactions of an economy. Economic

transactions cover all the activities of an entity (households, governments, firms and financial
institutions) that are of an economic nature (production, consumption, distribution saving and
accumulation and foreign transaction). Data on gross national product (GNP), Gross domestic
product (GDP) and net national product (NNP) collected over a period of time are good
examples of national accounting data.

There are so many other types of economic data. These include; industrial data,
internal trade data, investment data etc.

Social Data

Social data is information that social media users publicly share which includes metadata
such as the user’s location, language spoken, biographical data, and/ or share links. Social
data is valuable to marketers looking for customer insights that may increase sales or, in the
case of a political campaign, win votes Social data are relating to human society and it is
organized. Examples of social data are discussed below;

1. Population Data

Population data refers to human inhabitants of a specified country at a given time.

Data from vital registration such as number of births, deaths, manages

2. Health Data

Health data is data on well-being of people in a country. Most data on health, deal with
mortality, morbidity and fertility.

Data on health required for planning can be under five groups;

a. Population data

b. Health problem data, mainly on morbidity and mortality

c. Health services data (input data)

d. Health services achievements (output data) and finally

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e. Health services costs.

3. Housing Data

Housing is a basic human need for the protection of persons and of property from sun, rain
and wind housing data describe the housing situation at a well-defined point of time and
reflect changes in the housing situation during a specified period of time. The data highlight
or reflect the quantitative aspect of the housing inventory, its occupancy status, and its
adequacy in terms of facilities available to the occupants. Example of housing data is data on
number of housing units in Zaria, Kaduna State from 1985 to 2007.

4. Crime Data

Crime can be defined broadly as any “act or omission forbidden by law on pain of
punishment”. Crime data, therefore, consist data on number of persons tried in the court by
type of offence during a given period of time, number of cases, number of sentences imposed
on summary convictions, number of persons in prison by sex and length of sentence, average
monthly prison population; cases of Indian hemp in Federal Prison and finally, number of
young persons admitted to prison.

5. Labour Data

Labour data is used to refer data on labour force and labour force is defined as all the people
in a particular country who are of the right age to work. Data on labour force can also be
defined as data on total number of people employed or unemployed. Example of labour data
is data of unemployment rate by urban and rural in Nigeria from 2001 to 2007. Another
example is unemployment rates by educational levels, age group and sex between 2006 and
2007.

2.2 SOURCES OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DATA

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There are two main sources from which data on social and economic statistics can be
obtained published and unpublished sources. These sources can be further classified into two
groups; National and international sources.

2.2.1 Published National Sources

The national sources of data relate to the data published by statistical offices of different
countries, by research institutions and by individual researchers. The main sources of such
published data are as follows;

1. Statistical abstracts, bulletins and report issued by government departments,

especially their statistical units.

In African countries, the central statistical organization has been assigned the responsibility
of publishing data relating to the particular country’s economy. These organizations
periodically bring out publications for this purpose.

The frequency of publication rages from one month to one year. However, the coverage of
the various aspects of the country or economy depends on the availability of resources, both
human and financial.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has the responsibility of publishing data relating to
Nigerian economy. The data it collects relates to External Trade, prices, consumer
expenditure, crime, national accounts, health etc.

The statistical abstracts or the statistical Digest is the most elaborate source of National
Published data published annually by NBS.

2. Miscellaneous Report of Government and Non-Government Agencies

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These are not reports specifically made-up of tables. The tables that feature in such reports
are normally incidental and used mainly to summarize the activities of the agency over the
period covered by the reports. Examples of these agencies (non-governmental agencies) are,
the produce-marketing boards, insurance companies and universities (private).

The Central Bank of Nigeria publish data relating to the money and finance, production,
prices, balance of payments, foreign exchange and general aspects of the Nigerian economy.
There are also private sector publications. The banks and other financial institutions are
obliged by law to publish their statement of accounts.

3. Research Reports and Publications in Learned Journals

These are usually devoted to reports of specific research investigations. Research institutions,
like National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) carry out independent
surveys and publish the results thus obtained.

Individual researchers also carry out independent surveys on particular fields of interest. The
results of their research are published in either academic journals or books. The coverage of
these private sources of data is limited to a particular aspect of the economy.

4. Daily Newspapers, Magazines and Miscellaneous Periodicals

Some fairly reliable data occasionally appear on the pages of daily newspaper, magazines and
periodicals. But sometimes data from these sources are manipulated to make their stories
sensational. Therefore, the authenticity of data from these sources are questionable.

2.2.2 Published International Sources

The government statistical documents are rarely sufficient, but much additional information
can usually be obtained from the documents published by the various international
organizations. These international sources of data consist of the publications of the
international institutions; the World Bank, the international Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Other United Nations
(UN) agencies including the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

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The characteristics of the statistics published by the three most important organizations – The
UN, the ECA and the IBRD are;

 UN: - The information given is a summary of statistics by the various governments,

which is collected yearly.
 ECA: - Statistics are frequently collected from various African government that are
members of the ECA and analyzed by ECA personnel.
 IBRD: - Statistics are mostly collected over a short time period by experts in the
respective country from government organization.
In general the international agencies extract data from the statistical offices and Central
Banks of different countries and publish them periodically. The most comprehensive
international sources of data is the monthly bulletin of statistics and Statistical Year Book
which is designed to serve as convenient summary of all international economic and social
data.

There are other international sources of data. These include;

Bulletin of labour statistics by International Labour Organization (ILO), Year book of Labour
Statistics, and Food and Agricultural Organization (F.A.O) reports. These sources contain
specifically labour statistics.

Unpublished Sources

The unpublished sources include the files of many government and non-government
departmental agencies and cooperations. Such data, although not published, can be used with
profit by researchers to cross-check other information available in published form. Collection
of data from this source is always difficult and time consuming due to confidential nature of
these data.

2.2.3 SOURCES OF SOME ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DATA

Sources of Population Statistics: - The major sources of population data are;

1. Population Censuses: - The census is the source of demographic statistics in many

countries. Population census is usually defined as “the total process of collecting,
compiling and publishing demographic, economic and social data, pertaining at a

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 specified time or times to all persons in a country or delineated territory. The statistics
are published in special census reports or volumes of various countries.

Vital Registration: - This consists continuous registration of births, deaths,

marriages, and so on. As a general rule, the data are published in vital registration
reports monthly or annually in various countries.

Sample Surveys: - A sample survey is another source of demographic statistics,

which seeks to collect information from a fraction of the population only. It is
employed to arrive at estimates of demographic characteristics, size, distribution,
mortality, fertility and migration.

Population Register: - This source is usually employed by the developed countries,

which maintain a regularly updated list of people resident in a country with details of
sex, date of birth, marital status, and so on.

Non-Traditional Sources: - These include parish registers, babtismal records and

other administrative data.

Sources of Health Data

Data on various aspects of a country’s health can be obtained from;

1. Vital registration system (births, manages and deaths)

2. Hospital records

3. Records of health authorities or health ministries

4. General or private practitioner’s records

5. Industrial health records

6. School health records

7. Sample surveys.

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As a general rule, the statistics are found in publications of annual vital statistics and in
statistical bulletins. Apart from local sources that give data on various aspects of health,
international sources also provide further data. The World Health Organization (WHO) issues
a “Year Book on Epidemiological and Vital Statistics” for member countries.

Sources of Education Statistics

The main sources of education statistics are the records of;

1. Schools and universities

2. Local and regional education offices.

3. Departments with the Ministry of Education.

4. Other government departments (National Bureau of Statistics); and

5. Special inquiries that can be under taken.

As a general rule, the statistics are found in the statistical bulletins or abstracts and ministries
of education of some African countries.

Sources of Criminal Statistics

There are two main sources of criminal statistics: official records and surveys: The first major
source of criminal statistics is the records of the police at the district, regional and main
offices in the country. It is here that one obtains the statistics of criminal offences known to
the police. However, the number of crimes in any community can never really be known,
since a vast number of crimes are committed but not reported by the public, nor discovered
by the police.

The law courts also provide a fruitful source of statistics for the outcome of persons alleged
to have committed crime. This source of crime statistics is the Federal Government court’s
return of all cases registered, pending and heard, with the accused’s name, age and alleged
offence and the courts decision.

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The local government authority and native authority do try suspected criminals, but records
are usually not very reliable, if they are kept at all.

Sources of Labour Statistics

There are two main sources of labour statistics, National and International Sources.

The major National Sources of labour statistics are many and varied. These sources range
from population census, labour force surveys, establishment surveys employment exchange,
agricultural trade and commerce censuses. Between these sources they cover employment,
unemployment, the labour force and manpower statistics

International Sources of Labour Statistics

There are three main international sources.

1. Bulletin of Labour Statistics: - It is published quarterly by the International Labour

organization (ILO).

2. Year book of Labour Statistics: - This is one of world’s leading statistical reference
works of source material. It brings together in a systematic, comparable form a mass
of data from a vast network of authoritative sources of information in some 190
countries. It gives details of exactly how many people did a particular job for how
many hours and for how much remuneration. As well as tables giving more detailed
information by industry, occupation, sex and so on, the year book contains data on the
structure of the total and economically active population, labour productivity,
industrial accidents and industrial disputes.

3. FAO Reports: - Other main sources of data on employment and unemployment are
the reports of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, based
in Rome.

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Sources of Agricultural Data

The principal sources of agricultural statistics in African countries are the marketing board
statistics, rural household surveys, population censuses and the census of agricultural
production.

In Nigeria, the statistics are compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of
Agriculture, and are published on a regular basis in the government publications. For
instance, agricultural statistics can be obtained from the Digest of statistics and Economic
indicators, published by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Sources of Financial Statistics

Financial statistics are collected and published both at the National level and at the
international level. Each of the African country’s Central Bank has been assigned the
responsibility of collecting data from all the financial institutions in the country and
publishing these data. The financial institutions in their turn also bring out publications
showing their statement of accounts and their participation in economic activities. At the
international level, the IMF publishes, on a monthly basis, international financial statistics.
Similarly, the agencies of the World Bank publish the statement of the loans granted to
various developing countries for carrying out their development programmes.

The Annual Report and the Statement of Accounts is an annual publication of the Central
bank of Nigeria and records data for the year ended on 31st December. It covers all the sectors
of the economy. It gives information on the fiscal and monetary policies adopted during the
calendar year, domestic production and distribution, financial system, public finance
including public debt at the Federal Level, balance of payments, international economic
developments and its own balance sheet for the year.

The second publication of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Economic and Financial Review, is
published periodically, generally twice a year. This publication records data on Central
Banking, Commercial Banking, currency in circulation, external assets, international trade,

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money and capital markets, money supply, national savings, production in Agriculture,
electricity and minerals, consumer prices, public dept. and public finance.

The third publication of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Monthly Report is published monthly
and covers summary of developments (in a given month), money and banking, prices, flow of
foreign exchange and external reserves and development in foreign markets.

Sources of External Trade Data

The records of customs and exercise form the source of primary data, and the publications of
the National Bureau of statistics and the Central Bank form the Secondary sources of data.
Apart from these domestic sources of statistics, data are also available at the international
level in the following publications of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the
International Bank for reconstruction and Development (World Bank, IBRD) and the United
Nations (UN):

 Direction of Trade (Annual, IBRD and IMF)

 International Financial Statistics (IMF)
 Survey of African Economics (IMF)
 Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (UN)

2.3 USES OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DATA

Social and economic data are very vital in plan formulation, execution and monitoring. The
effectiveness of policy analysis and general economic management rests on the

generation of accurate, reliable and timely data.

The uses of some social and economic data are highlighted below:

Population data

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Population census are the primary sources of the basic data required for planning, for
administration and also for many aspects of economic and social research. The data is
specifically used for:

1. Education planning: The population in the school going ages by age and sex assist in
planning for the number of school places and number of teachers and the
student/teacher ratios and student classroom ratio. The needs for teachers and
classrooms at various levels of education, given the enrollment targets, can be
projected, as well as the population in the school-going ages at future dates.

2. Planning for housing: the demand for housing is closely tied to the population size
and age-sex distribution, the rates of household formation and dissolution, migration
and population redistribution.

3. Agricultural planning: population data helps government to know how many people
that work in agriculture, their age-sex distribution, their dependents, their income per
head, and so on.

4. Regional planning: rural-urban migration account for almost half of the urban
population growth in most countries and most government have expressed concern at
the effect of migration, particularly of urban population growth. Data from census on
both the levels of migration and the characteristics of migrants are needed for
appraising the consequences of migration on both sending and receiving areas.

5. Manpower and labour planning: governments plan for the provision of adequate
employment for persons in the labour force requires knowledge of how many persons
are in the labour force, the rate at which new persons are entering and leaving the
labour force and the characteristics of the labour forces.

6. Health planning: the increasing desire of governments to improve health conditions

and to engage in health planning, that is, to plan for the number of persons per-doctor
and nurse, the number of persons per hospital bed, and so on, requires demographic
data of the total number of persons in the country and the age – distribution.

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Uses of Health Data

The use of health data depends on its type. The health problem data, mainly on morbidly and
mortality can be used for the control of epidemics. Secondly, they can be used for local
administrative action where infectious cases have to be identified and isolated. Third, the
statistics can be sued for medical intelligence systems or for research and diagnostic study.
Fourth, the data can be used for international comparisons.

Health services resources: - The data of Health services and facilities serve a numbers of
purpose. Forsyth, the data can be used for assessment of the present and furthered
requirements for health services and facilities in the light of the needs of specific age she
categories of the populations: second, the data can be used for the assessment the health
problem and needs of various social and economic groups. Third, they can be use for the
evaluations of the effectiveness of service and, of facilities already provided. Finally, they
can use for the evaluations of effects of internal migration and other aspects of social and
economic changes upon the health status of the populations.

Uses Educational Data: - Educational data covering statistics of schools by type of

management, statistics of teachers ,statistic of pupils (students) and financial statistics are
very useful in educational planning.

The uses of educational data may be summarized as follows :

1. The data on education provide an over all statistical picture of the extent and working
of the educational system.

2 The data also help to evaluate the performance of the educational system.

3. The data are necessary for future of planning through projection of the future school
populations and supply of teacher and so on.

4. The statistics are useful for planning the man power requirements for the country.

5. The statistics can be used for international comparison.

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Uses of Housing Data

Housing is a basic human need for the protection or persons of property from sun, rain and
wind.

The uses of data on housing are as explained below.

1. Housing data give a systematic account of changes in the supply of housing available
to the population as well as the natural, economic and social factors that have a
bearing on these changes.

2. Housing data also serve as a principal indicator of the standard of living in a country.
The type of houses and their facilities can be used to judge progress of a country.

3. Housing statistics are essential for the planning and the construction of houses. In this
connection, a number of African countries, including Nigeria have embarked upon
programmes for the poorer sections of the community.

4. Houses are an important source of ownership of wealth in African countries. Housing

data can thus help in the estimation of the property and wealth of the nation.
Similarly, they would be helpful in estimating wealth tax and tax on income from
wealth.

5. Housing statistics are also required for the estimation of national income.

Uses of Criminal statistics

Crime is a social problem and the concern of the entire community. Data on crime from
official source as well as from research findings can be used for:

1. Examining the nature of social control of crime any given society.

2. Predicting the pattern of crime in a society because the probability of an offenders

committing of another offence is usually related, to several factors in his previous
criminal career and in his social background.

3. Explaining the present crime.

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 Pattern in order to be able to assist in the prevention of future crime.

Uses of Labour statistics

Employment is one of the most pressing social and economics problems of our time.
Consequently , measures of utilization and non-utilization of labour are of great deal of
interest to analysts and policy makers alike.

The used of the data on employment, unemployment and the labour force are
enormous:

1. They provide an adequate statistical basis for the analysis of economic and social
problems of employment and in particular for the, formulations and applications of
policies designed to maintain full employment and to promote development.

2. Once the basic data on employment and the labour force are available, one can
estimate the future requirements of labour force commensurate with the planned
growth of output in various industries.

3. The reliable data on employment, unemployment and the labour force are crucial for
estimating labour productivity in different industries as well as that of the nation.

4. The reliable statistics of employment, unemployment and labour give an idea of the
available resources, in the country and form the basis of any policy towards
optimization. The country can choose a Labour Intensive technique if labour is
abundant, or carry out a labour- saving programmes if capital is abundant and labour
is scarce.

Uses of Financial Data

The government and Central Banks of any country are the major users of financial statistics.
The data are used for:

1. Monitoring the economy and changes in the financial system.

2. Assessments leading to policy decisions.

3. Administrative purposes in connection with credit control and exchange control

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Uses of External Trade Data

Data on external trade give information on the volume of goods and service traded, their
composition, their direction and the balance of payments. The following are the uses of
external trade statistics.

1. The foreign trade data serve as a useful guide to the monetary and fiscal polices of the
country. If the value of export shows a declaring trend and the value of goods
imported shows a continuous upward tendency, the situation calls for remedial
measures both on the monetary side and on the fiscal side.

2. The data on external trade also give in detail the transactions carried out with different
countries, and one can judge the relative importance of a particular trading partner in
ones country’s economy.

3. The analysis of the composition of trade is useful in judging whether a country is

depending too much on the export of one commodity.

4. Reliable trade data are also useful for building economic models needed for
forecasting. These forecasts may help in formulating plan for economic development.

2.4 LIMITATION OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DATA.

The main sources of data that are used by governments and by economic researchers are
official statistics and statistics collected through surveys. Official statistics are incidental to
the process of administration and are collected continuously by various government
departments and institutions. They do not cover all areas on which information is needed for
guiding policies, and even in the areas for which they are available the data tend to be
incomplete, inconsistent, biased and often out of date. Improving official statistics depends
on the importance given by government departments to this function and on the education of
the public.

However, socioeconomic data collection, analysis and research also suffer in Nigeria more
often them not from several limitations.

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1. There is the problem of ethnocentricity, that is, an obsession with modernization and a
restriction of the scope of the investigation to the point where the questions supply
their own answers. In addition, analysis from the economic standpoint is rendered
difficult by data that are often much poorer than the analyst realized.

2. Government in African countries have at various times interfered with data collection
and analysis, thereby contributing to the quality of the data and their reliability, this
can arise in several ways .Firstly, government can ask the statistical office to
manipulate or fabricate data. In the past, census operations of several countries have
been suspected of being manipulated to exaggerate the proportional share of particular
ethnic, racial or religious groups or regions.

3. The statistical office can be requested to suppress inconvenient data. This is a regular
practice in many countries. The politicians in power justify this on the grounds of
public policy.

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CONCLUSION

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 REFRENCES

Albrecht, James, 1979, “A look at capacity utilization I Swedish industry.

Albrecht, James, 1989, moses code. Research report No.36 stockholm: IUI.

Albrecht, James, pontus Braunerhjelm, Gunnar Eliasson, Thomas Nordstrom and Erol
Taymaz MOSES Data base. Stockholm: IUI.

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